The Matrix & SciFi limitations?

Discussion in 'SciFi & Fantasy' started by Dinosaur, Nov 15, 2005.

  1. Laika Space Bitch Registered Senior Member

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    Well that's the problem, Prince_James. Humans simply cannot be used as a primary power source due to the laws of thermodynamics. I'm sure that people can come up with a zillion reasons to justify captive humans in the Matrix universe, but use as a primary power source is not one of them.

    For humans, energy input > useful energy output.
     
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  3. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    guthrie:

    It is quite possible that the machines - like us - have been incapable of creating a continuous and stable fusion reaction which can provide meaningful amounts of power at an acceptable ratio of work to get said power.

    I'd also prefer to not reference quack-science orgone energy.

    Laika:

    As much as possible, it behooves us to attempt to explain, as rationally as possible, what is quoted on screen if we are to have a science debate for the Matrix. Try considering the ATP avenue I went down just recently.
     
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  5. Laika Space Bitch Registered Senior Member

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    Humans are consumers. Any energy that could be harnessed from ATP will have come originally from the food fed to the humans. Since there is no solar energy available at the Earth's surface, any energy in the food will have had to come ultimately from energy provided by the machines. So why don't they use that energy directly?

    Regardless of whether machines harvest ATP, sweat or belly-button fluff, what they are not using humans for is a primary source of energy.

    This is true no matter how imaginative the justification.

    I am not speculating on the use of ATP or other chemicals as energy storage media.
     
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  7. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    Laika:

    The food fed from the humans likely is other humans and whatever remains of any other organic life.
     
  8. Fafnir665 You just got served. Registered Senior Member

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    OH btw, whats with that bullshit about the earth going cold? If the year was 3000 theres no way the earth's core could be that cold.
     
  9. TW Scott Minister of Technology Registered Senior Member

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    I concur there since the core puts out more heat than we take in form the sun. Of course for all we know the machines could have mined what little radioactive material is down there and with out the decay to heat up the nickel iron it might be getting cold. Or perhaps dialogue was wrong and they are are still in the crust, just close to a cool spot in the mantel.
     
  10. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    Fafnir665:

    They said the Earth's core went cold?

    TW Scott:

    Or perhaps those series of pipes are cooling units? You know, the one the counsellor and Neo were looking at?
     
  11. Fafnir665 You just got served. Registered Senior Member

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    They implied it. They say that the only warm place for Zion is down near the earths core. If thats the only warm place, and its cool enough for humans to live there, than to me that implies that the interior of the earth is quite a bit cooler than it is now.
     
  12. Dinosaur Rational Skeptic Valued Senior Member

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    I do not consider myself knowledgable in this area, but I think the following is erroneous.
    If the core puts out more ehat than Sol, I doubt that it is noticable at the surface of the Earth.

    I always that the Earth's major source of energy is Sol.
     
  13. Prince_James Plutarch (Mickey's Dog) Registered Senior Member

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    Fafnir665:

    They may be referencing the only warm place + not ruled by machines.
     
  14. MJ12 Commando The Last Cyborg Spamurai Registered Senior Member

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    The simplest explanation is that the humans are used as a massive computer network to run the fusion power stations without wasting valuable computronium on it, and the Zionists, most of them being not scientists, think the power is really being gained from the body.

    Easy, simple, not thermodynamics-violating.
     
  15. TW Scott Minister of Technology Registered Senior Member

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    Actually, the Earth has always put out more heat and radiation than it has taken in. The sun does provide quite a bit of power, but we radiate that off and then some every moment. And notice I didn't say the core radiates more heat than Sol. It's that we get more heat from the core than we do from Sol. Huge difference.
     
    Last edited: Dec 15, 2005
  16. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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  17. guthrie paradox generator Registered Senior Member

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    Indeed, that might be possible. Now, how do you explain the motive power of the kind of tunnel craft that morpheus et al were flying about in? Do they float by means of electromagnets or what?


    Och, just call it something else, nobody will notice...

    ATP avenue? You mean the one I dismissed using my scientific knowledge of biochemistry gained from reading a couple of science books, as well as my knowledge of chemistry gained from my Bsc(hons)?
    Lets face it, the MAtrix as SF is only acceptable if you regard it as very soft SF, with a message communicated through metaphor, rather than hard SF of any kind at all.
     
  18. genep Guest

    Just like life, fiction is fiction.
    IF you think that life is more real than The Matrix then it is only because you live in a dream world.

    A dream world that the likes of suicide-bombers, and Nazis that call themselves Zionists, make far more unreal than anything you will ever dream, or see in a movie.
     
  19. guthrie paradox generator Registered Senior Member

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    Hehehe. What I say is read good history, stuff has been done by people in the past that they woudlnt put in movies because no one would believe it. "reality" is far more interesting than fiction.
     

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